Russia does not have the capacity or geography to control the Med.
At the height of the Russian Empire, or the Soviet Union, they were a minor player.
But with an air/sea/land bridge through the Caspian...across northern Iran and Iraq, all the way to Latakia/Tartus they've come up several notches.
If he and Sarah Palin had won, I suspect Vice-President Palin would have had to take the pres on a caribou hunt from which only she and a dead caribou would return.